Meet Scarlett. She’s plump and losing her hair, and her man. Rhett is old and not so virile, yes, you guessed it, Ashley is gay, and the slaves definitely aren’t happy.
This is the world of the Wind Done Gone, the novel Margaret Mitchell’s estate took to court for taking on Gone with the Wind and its romantic, sometimes racist portrayal of the antebellum South. Earlier this year an Atlanta judge found the novel to be an unlawful exploitation of Mitchell’s tragic world, and banned its publication. That ban was lifted on appeal, and a final decision is expected any day now.
The novel is in bookstores, but whether it stays there depends on whether the court decides its depiction of the land of Tara is a parody of Gone with The Wind, which is legal under copyright law – or a sequel, which is not.
(Hosted by John Donvan)
Guests:
Ed Davis, First Amendment and intellectual property lawyer with Davis Wright Tremaine
Wendy Strothman, executive vice president of Houghton Mifflin, and Alice Randall, author of “The Wind Done Gone.”